Telling it like it is since 19….month

The moment of truth on Iran “is not days or weeks away, but neither is it years away,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday. “We can’t allow Iran to go nuclear… I’m not going to allow it.”

Netanyahu was speaking in a Channel 2 interview, the latest in a series of TV appearances since his talks with President Barack Obama at the White House on Monday.

He said he hoped the international pressure on Iran would prompt the regime there to halt its nuclear drive, but that one way or another “the threat of a nuclear Iran must be turned aside.”

It would be a betrayal of past and future generations were Iran allowed to attain the bomb, he said. “If I don’t make the right decision, there may be no one to explain it to.”

Israel’s Ambassador to the US, Michael Oren, meanwhile, told Army Radio that Israel had not discussed “lights” or “lines” with the US over an attack on Iran. “We didn’t discuss green or red lights,” he said. “We didn’t discuss lines of any kind.”

Iran’s Ambassador to Lebanon, Ghazanfar Rokn-Abadi, warned that any Israeli attack on Iran would have “painful” consequences. Iran’s missiles were aimed at Israeli targets and could reach any Israeli or US bases in the region, he said. “Any aggressive move against us will prompt a painful response.”

And Iran’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, reiterated that his country “will never, ever suspend our nuclear activities,” insisting that the program is exclusively for peaceful purposes. “The truth is, Iran is not developing a nuclear weapon.”

Still, he said, Iran “is ready to re-engage with IAEA… A new chapter (has) opened.”